3 skiers killed in Wash. avalanche; 4th survived

STEVENS PASS, Wash. 
Expert skiers caught in a weekend avalanche were equipped with safety devices and kept track of each other as they strayed beyond the boundaries of a popular Washington ski resort.

But the precautions still didn't save several from getting trapped in the deadly slide that has highlighted the risks of backcountry skiing during a season of heightened avalanche dangers in the West.

Authorities say the huge avalanche hit about a dozen skiers Sunday. Three men were killed.

Powder Magazine senior editor John Stifter, who skied with the group, says once the avalanche swept one of the skiers down the mountain, he and several others turned on beacons and began searching. .

Authorities say one skier was saved by an airbag she deployed after the avalanche hit.

Stifter says another skier survived by bear-hugging a tree.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Well-equipped and familiar with the terrain, about a dozen expert skiers were making their way through a foot-and-a half of fresh snow when an avalanche hit them in an out-of-bounds area near a popular Washington ski resort.

Three men were killed Sunday when they were swept about a quarter-mile down a canyon, and a fourth skier caught up in the slide was saved by a safety device, authorities said. The large group had split into three smaller groups before the avalanche, but all the backcountry skiers were buried to some extent. Those who were able to free themselves rushed to dig out the victims and unsuccessfully performed CPR on the three.

"Most of the people involved in this were well-known to the ski community up here, especially to the ski patrol," said Deputy Chris Bedker of the King County Sheriff's search-and-rescue unit. "It was their friends who they recovered."

The Seattle Times reported that two of the victims were Chris Rudolph, the 30-year-old director of marketing for Stevens Pass, and 46-year-old Jim Jack, a judge of competitive free-skiing, where skiers perform tricks and jumps, often in the backcountry.

The Stevens Pass fatalities were part of a deadly Sunday on Washington ski slopes. A male snowboarder was killed in a separate avalanche at the Alpental ski area east of Seattle, authorities said.

The men who died on Stevens Pass tumbled approximately 1,500 feet down a chute in the Tunnel Creek Canyon area, King County Sheriff's Sgt. Katie Larson said.

The fourth skier who was swept down the mountain about 80 miles northeast of Seattle was a woman who appeared to avoid a similar fate because of the avalanche safety device she was wearing, Larson said.

ESPN.com identified the survivor as professional skier Elyse Saugstad, who said she used an airbag after the avalanche hit. ESPN Freeskiing editor Megan Michelson was among the skiers and was uninjured, it said.

Michelson said the initial slide was about 30 feet wide and three feet deep, but quickly grew as it swept away Saugstad and the three victims.

Saugstad said she immediately deployed the airbag from her backpack, crediting it with saving her life.